Never Forgotten
by CharismaPoison
Summary: A story about Zekk and his everlasting love for Jaina Solo, there are several original characters and song quotes within that help the story go smoothly along.


"Can we pretend that X-Wings in the night sky are like shooting stars?  
I could really use a wish right now, wish right now wish right now..."

Zekk looked up at the night sky from the balcony of the Hapan Palace where he had been during the time he needed to heal. Tenel had had her cousins Trista and Taryn Zel bring him here during the time where Jaina had been killing her brother Jacen to save the galaxy and upon his waking up he had been told that Tenel needed his help and expertise for a private mission. He allowed to contact nobody about the fact that he was alive and well or about where he was. He sighed as the pale moonlight shone on his bare upper body while he looked over the grounds before turning away to head back into his room and sitting on the lavish bed that he had been provided. He looked at the holo he had of Jaina on his bedside table, remembering the last things they had said to one another.

_"You're a dreamer Zekk, just dreaming your life away," Jaina had said as they got their X-Wings ready to head for the Anakin Solo for the final showdown with Jacen. She had just gotten back from her time with the Mandalorians and she had changed since then. He had finally told her that he got it, that they would only ever be friends and he was alright with that. She got in her X-Wing as he watched her and shook his head._

"You say I'm a dreamer, we're two of a kind. Both of us searching for some perfect world that we know we'll never find. So perhaps I should leave here, yeah go far away...but you know there's no where I'd rather be than with you here today," he said as he climbed into his X-Wing and started it up, following her to the Anakin Solo where everything was destined to change forever.

He shook his head, clearing his mind of what happened that day as he looked at the holo of him and her once more. "Sometimes good-bye is a second chance..." he said softly as he pulled on his black T-shirt just as someone knocked on the door.

"Zekk...my cousin said she would like to talk to you," Taryn said brushing her long red hair out of her eyes and blushing softly. She had it bad for him and he could tell in her eyes. He felt bad because he really only had eyes for Jaina but still...things happened and he never knew where the Force was going to take him next. "Are you going to be able to do this for her?"

Zekk nodded his head. "Yes...I have to fight because I know in the end it's worthwhile, that pain that I feel slowly fades away...it'll be alright," he said softly as he thought that he should realize that time is precious, it is worthwhile. He stood up to follow Taryn out of his room and into the throne room where Tenel waited with her head in her hands. She had taken her daughter to Han and Leia which had killed.

"Oh this night is too long, have no strength to go on, no more pain I'm floating away...through the mist see the face of an angel calls my name...I remember you're the reason I have to stay," she whispered to a holo in her lap of her child Allana and raised her head managing to smile at Zekk. "Thank you for coming," she said softly as she wiped her green eyes to try and make it seem like she had not been crying before he walked in.

Zekk nodded. "Anything for a friend, you know I would do anything that I could to help you Tenel," he said running a hand through his long black hair as he regarded her with serious Emerald green eyes. He fought to clear his mind of anything about Jaina that would give him away but things kept coming back to his mind.

_"Do you remember me, the kid I used to be? Do you remember me?" Jaina yelled at him as he started to walk away. They had fought about Jagged Fel and about her going to the Mandolorians, he felt like she was not the girl he had once known so long ago. "I need to die to feel alive in a sense damn it!"_

"Did you ever hear what I told you? Did you ever read what I wrote you? Did you ever listen to what we played? Did you ever let in what the world said? Did we get this far just to feel your hate? Did we play to become only pawns in the game? How blind can you be, don't you see? You chose the long road, but we'll be waiting...so go on. Bye bye beautiful," he said angrily as he kept on walking away with anger in his heart that was once ruled by his love for her.

"The transport will be ready in the morning to take you and Taryn to do the mission Zekk, get some rest," Tenel said and Zekk nodded, allowing Taryn to lead him back to his room. He was a bit nervous that Taryn's sister Trista would not be coming to Naboo with them to collect all of Jacen's plans so they could be hidden away from the galaxy like they needed to be. In the wrong hands those plans could be very dangerous. He knew his friend Tai Li would not let that happen but they needed to be away from the Sith and taken back to Tenel so she could take them to the Jedi, or so he thought was going to happen.

Taryn stopped outside his door and smiled as she opened it for him. "You know that she'll break you in two," she said motioning to the holo that was sitting on the bedside table of him and Jaina laughing together and he shrugged.

"It's a fairytale and the story is out of date..." he said softly meaning he and Jaina would never be together but he could not get her out of his head like a childhood story that sticks with her. "Perhaps we should focus on the mission," he said as he gently moved away from Taryn and she followed him a bit.

"Yes...we seduce the night with pain and rapture, like two ships that pass through the night. You and I-a whore and a bashful sailor, welcome to the sunrise of a dirty mind," she said pressing against him before he took her wrists to keep her from touching him further.

"Leave me be and cease to tell me how to feel, to grieve, to shield myself from evil. Leave me be your ode of lies is killing me. Romanticide till love do me part. See me ruined by my own creations and leave me be..." he said softly as Taryn tried to kiss him before he led her to the door and let her go, closing it behind her and putting his forehead on the door with a sigh.

_"How did we get here when I used to know you so well?" Jaina asked him as they sat in her room together after he had confessed his true feelings for her and he put his head in his hands. He had never felt like he should lie to her._

"My fall will be for you...My love will be in you. If you be the one to cut me I will bleed forever," he whispered softly as he shook his head and got to his feet to leave, it had been a mistake to come here and he knew that now. She had chosen Jagged over him in the past so why should now be any different.

"Don't say you love me you don't even know me. If you really want me then give me some time," Jaina said getting to her feet and following after him as he turned and kissed her deeply, holding her close before letting her go and heading to the door.

"It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you, there's nothing a hundred men or more could ever do," Zekk said as he opened the door and walked out, leaving her side for what felt like the millionth time but this time he knew it was different because of part of him would never leave her this time.

Zekk would early to get his things together for the mission that he was going on with Taryn, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible. It wasn't that she wasn't nice to be around but things were just not going to work between them so long as she kept trying to push him into things that he just was not ready for. He bid Tenel farewell as he boarded the ship that would take them to Naboo and back, knowing he would be able to go home as soon as they were back here with their mission completed. He tossed his things on a table since the ship only had one room to sleep in and he was not about to share it with her, he would just give it to her and be a gentleman, besides he had slept in worse conditions before.

"I need a miracle, I wanna be your girl...Give me a chance to see that you are made for me," Taryn whispered in his ear from behind as she entered the ship and Zekk sighed turning to face her.

"I would gladly bet my life upon it that the ghost you love, your ray of light will fizzle out without hope," he replied back to her as he walked into the cockpit and sighed again, this was going to be a very long trip indeed, longer than he wanted it to be.

"She exhales vanilla lace.  
I barely dreamt her yesterday, yesterday.  
Read the lines in the mirror  
Through the lipstick trace 'Por Siempre.'  
She said, 'It seems you're somewhere far away.' to his face."

Zekk woke up from a dream of him and Jaina the morning that they reached Naboo, a full armed guard surrounding the ship before they ever fully landed as they had not announced that they were coming. After everything that had happened, he did not blame Tai Li and her family for being on guard, all Sith were being hunted and killed by this point and there was no reason not to think that it would not happen to the Royal Family as well. The ship's ramp lowered and he stepped in front of Taryn to do the talking, his green eyes meeting the blue flamed silver ones of the Sith Empress Tai Li, her sword and lightsaber in her hands ready to fight.

"Hello Tai, how are you?" he asked bowing his head as Taryn watched everything with narrowed eyes. She already did not like the Sith and she could feel that the same was mutual for her as well.

Tai bowed her head gracefully yet never took her eyes off him just in case, her long silver hair falling around her face. "I am...alright for the most part. Come walk with me, we will talk," she said as she led him away with her twin brother Homicide who was his best friend.

"How have things been since I've been away?" Zekk asked, grateful to have some time away from Taryn and with people that he had trusted for as long as he could remember as the three of them disappeared into Tai's office.

"It waits for the day, I will let it out. To give it a reason, to give it its might," Homicide said brushing his long midnight blue hair out of his silver flamed blue eyes as he talked about the Sith side of him that he never let out.

"I fear who I am becoming, I feel that I am losing the struggle within. I can no longer restrain it, my strength, it is fading and I have to give in," Tai said as she nodded, she was with her brother on that one it was clear. Zekk felt badly for them, they were part Sith by race and blood, there was nothing they could do to get away from it. He had to hope that his friends would get things back to normal before his other friends felt the need to attack.

"And Jaina?" Zekk asked and watched them both lower their heads as a single holo was slid across the desk to him and he looked at the headline. "It's a nice day for a white wedding," it read and had the information for the wedding of Jagged Fel and Jaina Solo. With a nod he stood up and looked at his two friends and put down the holo of what Tenel wanted.

"And if I refuse?" Tai asked looking up at him.

"Don't make me make this ugly, we're friends but I just want this to be over with," he said with a shrug as Tai got to her feet and went to the safe, pulling out all the plans that Jacen had given to her to keep safe and handing them over. Or at least he thought it was all, she kept several of them that Jacen had told her to hand over to no one, not even himself and she had never looked at them either. "Thank you Tai," he said as he turned and walked out, heading to the ship to head back to Hapes.

"Run, come shatter me now, shatter me with hope  
Crawl, come breathe me in, bleed out all sorrows  
Scream me a dream, untouched by shadows  
Baby, shatter me now, shatter me now  
Shatter me with hope."

It was a long trip back home because of all the stops Taryn had to make along the way and while they were on Tatooine for her to conduct some business Zekk sighed thinking of what had gone on. He never heard Taryn come back until her lips were on his and her body was pressed to his. "We can't..." he whispered as she pulled his shirt off him.

"I've seen you fighting against your heart, living like you're dying so far from the sun," Taryn whispered as she pulled her own shirt off as well. Before they both knew it they were nude on the floor of the ship.

"You and me, we're made in heaven, I want to take you, I want to break you, supplicate you, with thorny roses, I want to bathe you in holy water I want to kill you, Upon the alter, you and me," Zekk whispered giving into her advances though his mind was still on Jaina as they made love and more than once he know he called Jaina's name instead of Taryn's but it could not be helped as Jaina was the one he truly loved.

The morning after that Zekk opened his eyes and got dressed, walking out of the room to see them breaking into Hapes' atmosphere and Taryn did not look happy with him. He was glad when they landed and he was able to give to plans to Tenel personally before he left in his X-Wing to go back to Coruscant at last. He got sidetracked along the way on Bespin for about a month which was where he head the news that Jaina and Jagged had broken up once again from Kiara Calrissian.

"I dream of the winter in my heart turning to spring  
While the ice gives way under my feet  
And so I drown with the sun

I've been burning in water and drowning in flame  
To prove you wrong and scare you away  
I admit my defeat and want back home  
In your heart under the rose

I open my eyes with a sigh of relief  
As the warmth of summer's sunlight dances around me  
And I see you with dead leaves in your hands

I've been burning in water and drowning in flame  
To prove you wrong and scare you away  
I admit my defeat and want back home  
In your heart under the rose."

Zekk had never been so happy to be back home in all his life as he walked into the Jedi Temple and ran directly into Jaina.

"Zekk! I thought I would never see you again!" Jaina said as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Zekk wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him.

"You and me have a disease, You affect me, you infect me, I'm afflicted, you're addicted," he whispered holding her and rubbing her back gently.

"I'm not afraid to say, "I love you." Any more than I used to be, babe. I am scared to death. I am scared to death to fall in love with you," Jaina whispered as she looked up into his eyes, her heart pounding.

"All because of you, I believe in angels. Not the kind with wings, no, not the kind with halos. The kind that bring you home, when home becomes a strange place. I'll follow your voice, all you have to do is shout it out," he whispered to her as his lips nearly met hers.

"I love you...and I never want to be without you again," Jaina whispered as her lips brushed his with every word.

"And you never will be because I love you," Zekk whispered kissing her for the first time as the last man that ever would kiss her again.


End file.
